Online group chat provides a real time interactive communication mechanism for members within a chat group. When a member of the chat group sends a chat message to a server over an Internet connection, the server pushes the chat message to all other members in real time. Each member receives all the chat messages sent by all other members in the chat group.
The number of members of a chat group is an important parameter for the system performance of online group chat tools. Existing online group chat tools usually set a maximum member number for the chat group. The maximum member number can range from 50 to 500. The maximum member number is enforced to limit workload on backend communication system such as the server and to avoid excess information for each member.
When the maximum member number is reached, the chat group cannot accept an individual who wants to join the chat group. Thus, the individual is not able to join the chat group and thus is not able to participate in any activity in the chat group (including viewing the chat messages). On the other hand, some members in the chat group do not actually actively participate in chatting. Thus, capacity of the chat group cannot be fully utilized, chat messages in the chat group cannot be viewed by all interested individuals, and user experience can be adversely affected.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for systems and methods for managing online group chat that overcome disadvantages of existing systems and methods.
It should be noted that the figures are not drawn to scale and that elements of similar structures or functions are generally represented by like reference numerals for illustrative purposes throughout the figures. It also should be noted that the figures are only intended to facilitate the description of the preferred embodiments. The figures do not illustrate every aspect of the described embodiments and do not limit the scope of the present disclosure.